My Dish Helper

Have you ever had your kids try and help do something that they just aren’t ready for? I think Luke is trying to do this lately. When I am either putting away clean dishes from the dishwasher or filling it up with dirty dishes, Luke is right there trying to “help”.


There are some basic rules I have learned that I must do in order to get the clean dishes put away and still allow Luke’s “help”:

Number 1 – Always put the utensils away first, and never leave the utensil holder in the door. I must take it out as soon as possible or else Luke will proceed to pull out the utensils and throw them on the floor, always starting with the steak knives (of course).

Number 2 – Always pull out the bottom rack first and put away those dishes. If I don’t do this then Luke thinks were done and shuts the door, then I open it, then he shuts it…you get the idea

Number 3 – Always grab more than one dish at a time, it saves time since Luke once again thinks we are done or something and since he can’t shut the door, he rolls the bottom rack inward. So I have to be quick and gather as much as possible before he rolls the rack away. Then after putting those dishes away, I roll the rack out, Luke rolls it back in, I roll it out…once again I think you see the pattern here.

Number 4 – Beware of Luke when he has a juice cup. He will constantly try and put his cup in the dish rack. If the bottom rack is out he places it in there. If the top rack is pulled out he gets on his knees, stretches forward and puts his juice cup there. When he does that, I take it out, then he puts it back in, I take it out, he puts it in, then I take it out and throw it a few feet away, he crawls over and gets it and then brings it back to the rack and puts it back in…a continuous cycle.

If I follow these rules Luke can “help” and mommy can still get dishes done. Now when we load the dirty dishes in the dishwasher the same basic rules apply, only I load all the dishes as quickly as possible, keeping the bottom rack out so that Luke can’t shut the door. Only he is quick and will slide the bottom rack in as soon as he gets a chance. I always load the utensils last. I also make sure they are scrubbed already and put them in as quickly as possible. If I have too much of a “break” Luke will start unloading all the utensils I just loaded. I have to be on my feet around this little guy.